Lukewarm?

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BintuluChuchGuy

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Hi everyone,long time no post.
I was wondering how does one know when she or he is lukewarm in their faith?🤷
I feel like i am one of these lukewarm people,and i want to change it as soon as possible.

Just like the bible said"because you are neither hot or cold,but lukewarm,i will spit thee out of my mouth"…And I dont want to get spitted out.,.😊
 
Are there any particular reasons why you think you are lukewarm in your faith?

I have just finished reading the book The Priest is not His Own by the Servant of God Bishop Fulton Sheen. In it Sheen describes the priesthood of Peter in the chapter “The Priest as Simon and Peter”. He describes the lukewarmness of Peter.

There were steps in Peter’s becoming lukewarm, which I think goes for all of us, not just priests. The first step was neglect of prayer - Christ asked Peter to pray in Gethsemane. Peter slept. Sheen points out that Christ addressed Peter as Simon - his human character. The spirit was willing but the flesh was weak.

The second step was the substitution of action for prayer. Peter couldn’t kneel to pray for one hour, yet he was able to cut off the ear of Malchus. Sheen believed that Peter actually intended to kill Malchus but that the Divine Power prevented this. He also suggests that it was because Christ healed the wound that Peter was not arrested - I suppose this shows that Christ is will to do all He can to keep us close to Him, no matter how terribly we stray.

The third step was “giving up mortification”, which is what Sheen calls lukewarmness. Lukewarmness is keeping one’s distance from Christ: “Peter followed Him at a long distance” (Matt 26:58). Peter - the Rock - had promised Christ that he would never desert Him, yet when the time came for Peter to be associated with Christ through His Holy Passion, he and the other disciples “followed Him with faint hearts” (Mark 10:32). He wanted to be close to the Lord, but not too close. The previous two steps were central in leading to this lukewarmness, because if Peter had stayed close to the Lord through prayer, he would have been given the strength to follow Christ all the way to the foot of the Cross.

So I suppose what all this tells us is that we have to stay close to Christ and we do that by living our faith every day. We know what we have to do - Peter knew what to do; he had promised so much - but that was only words, it was his actions (or inactions) which almost brought about his downfall.

I think we all go through periods of lukewarmness - or certainly “dry” periods, where we don’t feel close to the Lord in prayer - saying a few prayers is just something we “do”, though we don’t feel that we are giving or getting anything… I suggest that you try doing what Peter was unable to do - keep watch with the Lord for an hour; spend some time with Him as often as you can - talk to Him & listen to Him.
 
BintuluChuchGuy said:
Hi everyone,long time no post.
I was wondering how does one know when she or he is lukewarm in their faith?🤷
I feel like i am one of these lukewarm people,and i want to change it as soon as possible.

Just like the bible said"because you are neither hot or cold,but lukewarm,i will spit thee out of my mouth"…And I dont want to get spitted out.,.😊
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well I can’t comment about anyone else, but these are things that make me fear I am falling back into the comfortable lukewarm state
“I am a good person and God loves me so I know I am going to heaven.”
“I am a good person and God loves me so it does not matter if I go to church/pray/help the poor/treat my neighbor right/continue that fight with my sister/steal a few paperclips at work.”

“I prayed at CCD with the kids so I don’t need to say my evening and night prayer today.”

Or when I start asking myself “what is the bare minimum” type questions.
What is the bare minimum . . .
. . . I can tithe w/o feeling like a cheapskate
. . . I can do for Lent as in, if I give up soda, which I don’t drink anyway, I don’t have to really fast or abstain
. . . I can serve my parish or the poor–an hour or so should do it and make me feel sooooo good
. . . time I can spend helping a neighbor or relative who asked for my help, and better yet, how can I get out of it.

the last one especially, if I use some kind of church work as an excuse to get out of helping the said neighbor or relative.
 
You might think of this!

A little girl stood ballanceing on a fence, a man came along told her he would give her goodies if she came over to his side. She told him to go, she wanted to ballance.

Another man came asked if she would like to come over to his side of the fence he couldn’t promise her good things all the time, but latter in Heaven she would be at peace for ever, He said his name was Jesus. she said the same to him as to the first man.

The first man came back told her to come over to his side again, she refused told the man to go, the man told her his name was luie, short for lucifer and that she could stay on the fence,*** because he owned the fence***!!!

We must be weay of who owns what luke warm is as COLD to God.
We must all Choose
Godbless
littleone
 
It sounds like St. Alphonsus’ definition of lukewarmness (or tepidity) is someone who consciously and repeatedly commits venial sin without concern of amendment/repentance.
 
nsper7 said:
It sounds like St. Alphonsus’ definition of lukewarmness (or tepidity) is someone who consciously and repeatedly commits venial sin without concern of amendment/repentance.
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Yes, he seems to stress the point that one who is lukewarm will be comfortable with venial sins - because they’re “only” venial; they don’t block graces from God & they don’t necessarily lead to a loss of heaven.

Although he goes about it in a different way, St Alphonsus is, I think, essentially saying the same as Bishop Sheen, whom I quoted earlier. One who is lukewarm follows Christ at a distance - they stay within their “comfort zone”. Like Sheen, St Alphonsus points to St Peter - he didn’t want to abandon the Lord, but he wasn’t prepared to follow him closely. Prayer, according to St Alphonsus is a key remedy to lukewarmness - it was neglect of prayer which was key to St Peter’s becoming lukewarm.

I think when he quotes St Teresa praying that her nuns would be delivered from all deliberate sin, however venial - he is saying that we have to get our priorities right when we wish to approach the Lord. That is to say, we cannot be content to do the bare minimum just that we may get into heaven; what we do must not be for our final reward, but for love of God - which means that we must strive to avoid all sin.
 
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